Bobsled Re-Route

On Friday night I was getting ready for Saturday’s trail day. I prepped my waterproof gear expecting a rainy day. Luckily, we woke up to a pretty nice, foggy day. A fantastic turnout of 25 eager volunteers came to help with the new Bobsled reroute.

Bobsled is a very important trail in our community. Not only is it one of the most accessible trails, but one of the few green trails on the shore. The amount of usage this trail sees is huge, and the time that is required to maintain it is signifcant. Parts of the trail are in need of restoration since its opening 5 years ago. Fixing the trail requires creative thinking and big picture problem solving.
As such, we made the decision to create a reroute around an area that was over 30% grade-out of character for a green trail which is classified as grades no more than 15%. Bobsled is a trail for the next generation of riders; it is safe and provides a great experience to beginner riders.

“The section that was decommissioned was uncharacteristic compared to the rest of the trail,” said Brent Hiller, who is a MTB instructor and experienced trail builder.

Digger (Todd Fiander) and Pat were leading the trail building and providing the 25 person build crew with direction. Todd’s direction:“ We are opening the re-route today. Have Fun guys!” As usual Digger’s infectious enthusiasm, encouragement, and dancing kept the energy high.

The North Shore Bike Shop has been a great adopter of this trail and already hosted various trail days this year. NSBS hosted not one, but two trail days on Bobsled this fall.

In true North Shore Bike Shop fashion, Matt Juhasz had the tent set up with coffee and treats ready to go before most of us even arrived. Matt, Pat Podolski and the whole shop have done a fantastic job on the trail and with their trail adopter duties once again, so we want to say a sincere thank you to a great local business for their support and of course to all the volunteers as well.
Again thanks to everyone for the hard work, we are excited to continue to make improvements on Bobsled to create a barrier free, all access trail.